Blizzard's new ideas for WOW

Blizzard is preparing to unveil a new transfer system that's designed to let World of Warcraft players move characters to less populated realms - for a $25 fee.

Speaking to GameSpot, lead designer Shane Dabiri said: "Our goal with this is not so much about providing incentives for players to transfer realms as it is about offering an additional service for their convenience.

"This is something that many players have asked us about for a long time, so we're glad that we’ll be able to make the service available to them in the near future."

There will be restrictions on realm transfers - you can only take a character to a new realm once every six months, and once you've transferred, there's no going back. Transferring characters must be at least level 10, and their are restrictions on the amount of cash you can take with you - 300 gold for levels 10-30, 1000 gold for levels 31-50, and 5000 gold for levels 51 and above.

You can only transfer between realms of the same type, or from a PvP to PvE realm - but not vice versa. Plus, you can't have two characters of opposing factions within the same realm.

Dabiri went on to discuss the new Cross-Realm Battlegrounds feature which will be introduced with patch 1.12. It'll link Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin so you'll be able to fight players from other realms, "which means games will be starting and ending all the time. As a result, the wait to get into a battleground should be considerably less.

"We will of course test cross-realm battlegrounds on our public test realms for everyone to try out," Dabiri said.

Patch 1.12 will also introduce a new type of World PvP content, which will see Horde and Alliance players battling for control of strategic positions and resources. Plus, Rogues will get a talent review.

Ellie spent nearly a decade working at Eurogamer, specialising in hard-hitting executive interviews and nob jokes. These days she does a comedy show and podcast. She pops back now and again to write the odd article and steal our biscuits.